Lol being personally liked is like 10x more important than working hard in every mega Corp I’ve ever seen. Being a ruthless sociopath is the true cheat code.
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I think he wanted to.
was he your high school teacher? or like a high school teacher in your neighborhood that might have secretly been your biological father?
you were so good at geometry that he gifted his 401k to you lol like what high school kid is that impressive? or sad? maybe he thought you were so hopeless you’d die without this money
He didn’t say you won’t get fired. He just said you could do it (and feel good about yourself).
Obviously it depends on the job. If you don’t have piss on your boss’ desk clout, don’t piss yon your boss’ desk.
Yeah but you’re in management-level BS crap where you have to put on a silly hat and dance for your money at the company Christmas party.
I’m a programmer - the modern equivalent of some machinist on a job site who is the only one who actually knows how to make stuff that is crucial to the whole operation.
I didn’t mean it like that although that is also true.
I meant that there are plenty of jobs where you can put in that extra effort and no one will give a fuck or even notice.
Basically what Riverman said.
But again my larger point is don’t be dumb about it. If you stay late every day, make sure to email your boss and everyone else at 9pm.
In Bill Russel’s Dad’s world it was probably pretty obvious. Plus Bill Russel is a genius, so presumably his Dad would be too.
Basically I’m trying to say it’s an ethos. Not that you should just bang your head against the wall when it’s obvious no one is even watching.
I sincerely hope that none of my reports would ever feel it necessary to piss on my desk. I mean shit if you have that kind of clout just move on and work for a boss and company that doesn’t suck.
That’s not that far off from Riverman’s point. It’s all theater.
Level one – Being indispensable and making sure everyone knows it.
Level two – Tricking everyone in to thinking you’re indispensable
Man you guys are really not grooving with my vibe here. I don’t piss on the boss’ desk nor do I want to. I just want to know I could (metaphorically).
It doesn’t mean bosses are terrible. It’s about leverage. I prefer being in the position I am - where I built something that no one else really knows how to build or how it works. I don’t abuse it and I actually go way out of my way to make my stuff accessible to other devs. I want to be the hot girl who’s also nice.
But I also don’t put up with any crap. And good luck getting me to dance in a monkey suit for the company Christmas party.
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But everyone in management knows it’s all interpersonal bullshit and your value to another company if you leave starts at zero.
I hear you with that. Luckily my company doesn’t suck and ask me to stoop to that shit. But I’ve seen it for sure.
Maybe. This is pretty job dependent. I suppose what you say is true for a lot of jobs.
My buddy went to UMKC then NYU law school. He was making way more than any of us when he got out of law school. But still, he talked about seeing a senior associate - who made a shit ton more than any of us could dream of at that time - running down the hall to a partner’s office in terror over some crisis. He decided it wasn’t worth it to chase that, quit, and joined a lifestyle firm.
At the jobs I’ve worked I’ve seen a milder version of this dynamic - including the one I just described at our company Christmas party. I would die inside if I had to do anything like that.
I will work 90 hours a week for months on end to complete a big project, where I’m part of a team and we’re all counting on each other. But don’t ask me to dance in a monkey suit - to even a tiny degree. I see management as always having some level of monkey dance BS.
My job still has the thing where you have to pretend you’re sick or have some emergency to work from home. Everyone does it. Everyone knows everyone does it. But I still die a little inside every time I do it. I’d rather just fucking drive both ways to work than have to make up a new story every week like my boss always did. Covid has put that on hold thankfully.
In my industry, once you hit executive level you’re a made man, you have a 400k+ job for life no matter how lazy or incompetent you are, but it’s pretty hard to get there.
And you can port that to another company?
100%, yes
We had a guy get fired for cheating on his wife at a company event, very publicly and very drunkenly, had a lateral job within 90 days.
Ha, no, he was a single dude who was sitting on family oil money, he used to pay for like 20 students to go to Boston every year when they couldn’t afford the history trip. He was my quiz bowl coach for four years and he paid for so many of our trips. We won the state title my senior year and he covered Orlando in Disney hotels for everyone to go to a national tournament. Did the same thing for Malibu a few years later when I was the assistant coach.
He was also a really good friend. He would take a two week trip to visit me every year, he’d stay at a hotel and we’d get together for dinner every night. He preferred to be by himself, but he was also pretty lonely.
He actually wrote me an absurd letter that was delivered to me after he passed that was like an apology for not leaving me more but he just couldn’t do that to his sister’s kids. So basically I’m bitter I missed out on the super lotto. (I’m joking but nobody should write a letter like that. Dude left me that much money and he’s apologizing, makes no sense.)
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What’s a good non-STEM job for an antisocial contrarian misanthropist who is physically clumsy with poor eye-hand coordination?